Challenges to Preliminary Identification of "Victims" of Forced Marriage and Forced Begging in Serbia: Recommendations to Anti-Trafficking Policy Actors

In the first phase of my research (“Exploring ‘Vulnerability of Roma’ in the Anti-Human Trafficking Policy Discourse in Serbia”), I interviewed anti-trafficking policy actors active on the national level. One of the main findings is related to Serbian state institutions on the local level, which are criticized by many of the interviewed national policy actors for not identifying Romani victims of trafficking. In general, the interviewed national policy actors are convinced that discrimination (sometimes explicitly racism) prevents local level state institutions, especially schools and social care centers, from identifying Romani victims of trafficking. The second phase of my research examines the key findings of the first phase, through studying the local-level anti-trafficking discourse and practice. I conducted structured and semi-structured interviews with local antitrafficking policy actors: representatives of social care centers, health care institutions, police authorities, foster homes, non-governmental organizations, as well as several elementary school directors, Romani teacher assistants and a school psychologist.